Lordship have any such apprehension you may repeat as much and as often as you please for I only advised you of it before as thinking perhaps you might have don it by errour The errour says he was mâ—ne and a grievous error it was to â—ffend those so many waies who did ever stand in my dâ—fence But however that be in this respect as in some others I shall dy contented in that I can never satisfie my self with confessing my faults to you dear Father Which now by the goodnesse of God are as well known by me as heretofore they were little esteem'd and are now as bitterly lamented as heretofore they gave me gust though it were a false one I (m) The man did even melt between grief and love wish O thou most sweet Saviour of my Soul I had as well a thousand tongues that so I might fully cenfesse them a a thousand eyes that so I might bitterly bewail them and a thousand hearts that so eternally I migh detest them And that this grief for my sins committed against God might so break my heart as the instrument of Justice will take my head for those I have committed concerning men I do good Father by the goodnesse of God know what a sinner I am As a sinner I lament my self and as a sinner I will dy but a sinner all humbled and contrite and with my tears I will make my Funerals then suffer me to perform them after mine own fashion And here even I not (n) I cannot blame him being able to contain my self from weeping was observ'd by him who said thus Most happy Funerals are therefore these of mine which are solemnized by the servants of God Yet this part belongs not to you but only as being a Father to my Soul Who knows but that by these mutual tears and this exchange of tendernesse my impure conscience may indeed be cleansed Thus both of us being silent for a while he then proceeded Well my good Father it is now high time that by the (o) This authority was given to his true Church by Iesus Christ and in his name by his power 't is exercised Authority which God has given you to loose and bind men on earth you loose me from so many chains of sin which hang upon me To the end that as you have taught me I may say Auditui meo dabis gaudium laetitiam exultabunt ossa humiliata And first I besceech you you give me Absolution and then I may perform my Penance Though indeed what Penance carrying proproportion to my sinns is your Reverence able to impose At this he cast himself at my feet and bowed his head to my knee where I had laid my left hand and he all bathed it with tears and kissed it and expected the Penance Absolution Which I gave him fully in form of a p This is a ful remission of all Canonical Penances requir'd by the ancient discipline of the Church Plenary Iubiley according to the most ample priviledge (q) By the Popes granted to those of the Congregation of the (r) It is called a congregation of M sericordia because it is so great a wo k of charity and mercy wherein they imploy themselves Misericordia Being absolv'd and having don his Penance with incredible affection of mind he sate down again by my direction and then the rest camâ— and encircled him after the accustomed manner I then spake first to him after this sort Most Illustrious Lord Troilo our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ whom here we have present did by dying upon the Crosse give remedy in his person this night to three things among many others He (s) An application fâ—ll of life and comfort dyed in the flower and vigour of his youth that your Lordship might not have too much indulgence and compassion of your own tender youth and so might say O but why is my life taken away in so tender years And this is the first He dyed and he dyed of a violent death that to your Lordship it might not seem insupportable to dy upon necessity and so you might say O but why is the flower of my years cut off by a violent hand and this is the second He dyed of the most reproachful death which in those times was inflicted that it might not seem strange to your Lordship to dy by the hand of Justice and so you might say O but why died not I in my cradle or at least by some other natural accident Nay if your Lordship will accept this death in so tender years you offer him the best part of your time By dying a violent death you may make that which is necessary to be voluntary and by dying a dishonorable death taking it as a Penance for your sins you may avoid the shame of that last terrible day And so much the better you may accept it because you are not to dy in publique upon the Bridg as the ordinary Gustom bears but (t) It is there accounted of less dishonor to be put privatly to death They who dy privatly dy within the Castle they who publickly at the foot of the Bridg. privatly here below in the Court as is wont to be used towards your Peers I added also some other considerations and so ended my speech To which the Baron who was ever ready made this answer And (u) How wise the grace of God is able to make a very yong man upon a sâ—ddain I O Father for as much as coneerns the first dy willingly in this fresh age of mine because thus I shall be sure not to offend my Lord any more And from this instant I offer him my years my age and my life and a hundred years and a hundred ages and a hundred lives As for the second I will make a vertue of necessity and being to dy per force and according to reason I will dy willingly that so I may yield willingly to force and willingly give satisfaction to reason But as for the third I could wish for a more ignominious death And be you pleased to know that to have dyed in publique would have given me I know not what increase of consolation and gust For so I might have hoped by (x) Because publick sinns require publick satisfaction publique Penance to have made a better amends for my publique crimes And God knows I take no contentment to receive the favor of dying privatly But yet however if the determination which is made be such I resist it not Our Lord will accept the promptitude of my will Hereupon the Proveditore took up the speech and said Let your Lordship accommodate it self to the will and providence of God who has not only one way of ariving to save our Souls nor one only means of drawing them to him He leads one by one means and others by another It imports not that (y) Many of Gods judgments are secret but they
noâ— rather submit himself iâ— imitation of the humilitâ— only to superiours but tâ— equals and even inferiourâ— also and in fine to alâ—â— c This is the advice of S. Peter Subditi estote omini creaturae the world when just occasion should be offer'd The soul of this noble man was so well softned and sweetned by the unction of the Holy Ghost as that neither the greatnesse of his Nobility nor the ardor of his youth nor the natural boyling courage of his heart nor the fresh memory of his prosperity nor the unexpected arrival of his misery could make d A heart truely touched by Gods holy spirit wil overcome strange difficulties him once repine or keep him from instantly abasing himself But falling deeply upon the consideration of his sins and weighing duly how ful of demerit he was in the fight of God and knowing exactly that nothing is so truly ignoble as a Soul which has forfeited his grace and that rich or poor is little to the purpose but e wherin eternal true Nobility consists that the thing which imports is to be or not to be the servant or son of God it is not strange to see him east himself at the feet of common soldiers and stretch out his hands with such meeknesse at the will of the meanest Jaylors for the love of our Lord to signifie thereby the detestation wherein he had himself for having so presumptuously offended that Eternal Majesty which by all the Angels is adored From f The reasons why be was so frequent in confessing hâ—s sins hence also did it proceed that he so frequently confessed himself in that last night of hâ—s life and could never think he had sufficiently deplored his errors and detested the discorrespondence and ingratitude wherewith he had answered the unspeakable benefits of Almighty God Wherein if any man should think he used excesse it will be much more lawful for me to doubt that himself either has a mean conceit of the Infinite Majestie which is offended or an ignorant apprehension of the deformity of all sin which is committed or a proud and paltry mistaking of the Nothing which man was till he was created and the worse then Nothing which afterward he grew by sinning For g If you weigh these things well you will change your wondring at him into wondring at your self he that ponders these particulars as he ought and knowes that the offences into which he falls are innumerable and that the least of them which is committed against an Infinite Majesty in respect of the object is also infinite and that as no one good deed shall be unrewarded by the rich Mercy of God in Christ our Lord so no one transgression shall be left unpunished by his exquisite Justice will easily beleeve that in the space of a night it is hard for one to be too curious and too careful in setting straight the account of his whole life under the piercing eye of Almighty God But this Baron did even by moments in that short time which was left by the goodnesse of God acquire quire new h Great light of God is wont to breed great love of him great sorrow for having so shame fully offended him light and gain new love of our Lord and new contempt and detestation of himself and in the strength thereof found some actions to confess which he had not conceived to be sins before and others which he had confessed he had done it with a sorrow far inferiour to that he then felt For abstracting from the consideration which he had of his sins against God in respect whereof no soul is sufficiently able to quake and tremble under him I trust there is not a Readers eye in the world so dim as not to discern his undaunted heart And i The undaunted courage of this Baron that no thought of death had any power to take the least clarity from his understanding the least presence from his memory the least agility from his wit the least order from his speech or so much as the least puntillio from the civil respects and complements which are used among persons of his Nation and Condition Nor yet on the other side shall any man have reason to think that the punctuality which throughout the processe of this Relation he shall find to have been observed by the Baron in this last k This curtesie and complement was not affected but free and natural kind of courtesie did proceed from the least affectation of it Perhaps if we look neer home we may find some example to have been given of this not long ago but in the present case no suspition of it can be entertain'd both for many other reasons which will occur to him that reads the Relation and because as I sayd before these exact tearms of Honor and other respects to the company then present are as it were natural to men of his country and quality and there would cost them more pains to omit unless their minds were put into disorder by some passion then it would cost others to observe where they were not so natural as being learnt by industry and Art But yet that in so sad a case this man would for good manners forbear to set up his legs or not so much as stretch himself in the sight of others though his body did much incline him to it according to that mention which the Relation makes thereof may well go for a great argument in him of civility of modesty and of magnanimity And this is that which I thought fit to represent to you by way of Preface to this Story You will find the traces and foot-steps of putting men to death and the proceedings against l The several manners of treating Delinquents in several Countrys Delinquents to be very different from that of our Country both in relation to the body and the soul I take not upon me to say which are better which are worse With us the Processe of criminal persons is ever made in the face of the world but they are not sufferd to have any Advocates who may defend their causes In most other Countrys the Delinquents are permitted to have Advocates but the Processe is made though in publique Court yet only in presence of the Iudges and some few Advocates and Officers With us the Delinquents are suffer'd to live som dayes after their condemnation which certainly is meant in compassion to them in other parts after they are judged to dy and that it is so declared they think they do men a greater curtesy in putting them quickly out of pain With us there is no difference in the manner of death between a Clown and the best Gentleman of the Kingdom under the degree of a Baron unlesse it be in some very rare case by most particular favour of his Majesty but in all other places that I have seen all Gentlemen are beheaded to distinguish them from
in mine ear You whom through my good fortune I have heere to help me in this so weighty and high affayr in the place of God do you command mee I (p) Iâ—e gives himself away to his Ghostly Father give my self as bound into your hands The Prince has disposed of my body do you as much with my soul I sayd therefore to him I first desire my Lord that you make the protestation (q) This is a declaration of hâ—s faith with an entier submission to the good will of God which is wont to be delivered by such as are going to God Which being publikly pronounced by him with great sence and spirit he taking up and repeating my words I advised him further thus You shall now make all those acts of Contrition which I shall call to your mind having the eyes thereof first bent upon God being offended as a Creator as a Preserver as a Iustifier and as a Glorifier Next upon you self who have offended him being his creature his househould servant his Christian slave and one so deeply obliged by this benefits Thirdly upon the offences them selves which you have committed and be sory at your hart for having committed them and (r) For who can ever call to mind all his particuler sins if not in particular for them all at least for the (s) He had already confessed his sinns and now he is but exhorted to renew his sorrow for them most greivous of them which shall represent themselves to your memory Fourthly upon the good you have omitted and the time you have lost and the yeares you have mispent Fifthly upon the scandal you have given And if any thing more be to be done if (t) We cannot be saved unlesse first we make restitution as well of fame as â—f goods if â—â—lyâ— in our powâ—â— to make restitution either of fame or goods if to pardon others or to ask pardon your self restore and pardon and ask pardon If to perform any vows or fulfil any promises perform and fulfil them Or finally if you leave any debts or if you will make any signification of your repentance and pious end you are now to put your hand to work To these things he offered himself most readity and did execute them all with so great devotion that evâ—ry one now began to change his stile in speaking to him For finding that whereas before they thought they should have to do but with a young man or rather a youth and weakling (u) He infinitely overcame their expectation they were now to treat with a manly generous and ripe Christian far superior to that which might peradventure have been expected of him One of the Confortatori began with great discretion to discourse upon the horror of Death which our most sweet Christ Jesus did by his agony dispossesse of bitternesse Confi e saith he and cast your thoughts upon him and say Pone (x) Place me O Lord nearthee and let the hand of any other fight against me me Domine juxtate cujusvis manus pugnet contrame And if now you find any bitter taste in death during this short night as without fail you will say (y) O my Father not as I will but as thou wilt thy will be done Pater mi non sicut ego volo sed sicut tu fiat voluntas tua The contrite Lord made answer thus the wickednesse of my life frights me more than the bitternesse of my death Oh how wretchedly have I spent these eightein years How ill have I understood my Saviour How ungrateful have I been for his noble favors How rebelliously have I lived against his laws And how have I run like a wild unbridled horse in these later years of mine without any manner of restraint wheresoever the present occasions or conversations or (z) The sinner is only to blame himself for having sinned rather for I have said ill wheresoever mine own passions and blind affections had a mind to plunge me It is I and none but I who did precipitate my self and yet you bid me six my thoughts and hopes upon God and say Pone me Domine juxta te cujusvis manus pugnet contra me fiat voluntas tua Upon this another of the Confortatori proceeded thus It is an act of magnanimity not to fear the angry face of death and of humility to acknowledg our offences but of confidence to hope for pardon as your Lordship doth who well may say Propter nomen tuum Domine propitiaberis peccato meo multum est enim For thy names sake O Lord thou shalt forgive my sin for it is great O how great said Signor Troilo Even as great after a manner as is the mercy of God which is immense The Proveditore then sayd Your Lordship may if you be so pleased make your last Will and Testament to the end no other thought may sollitcie you but that of your soul Hereupon the Baron without the least delay by way of answer bade them write And having taken out of his pocket a little note which he carryed about him he suddenly dictated his Testament wherein he deliver'd some particulars in my opinion very considerable First (a) The considerations which may be made upon the manner of penning his Will of tender Devotion for he recommended his soul to God by most dear and religious words Secondly of Ripenesse which was more than of a young man because in a most particular mannâ—r he had remembrance of all his servants Thirdly of a most lively Contrition because with a most Profound internal affection of mind he demanded pardon of many even by name Fourthly of great Magnanimity because he conjured the Lady his Mother that shee would pardon all his adversaryes as he himself did pardon them a thousand times over Beseeching (b) what a true and noble Christian heart was this her by a long and christian circuit of words that shee would never resent his death but hee laid the fault upon himself in all things Fiftly of Religious Piety leaving large almes to many Churches and other holy places accommodating many poor (c) This is a devotion and charity much used in Italy Virgins with dowryes at the particular discretion and to be perform'd by the care of his heirs that God might the rather have mercy on him Sixtly of entire Iustice because hee took care that even more then was due by him should be restored Seaventhly of noble Gratitude because hee rewarded whosoever had don him any service in prison Eighthly of affectionate Reverence because hee did in a most sweet and dear manner ask pardon of the Lady his Mother and the rest of his kinred besides the expressing of other complements Having ended his last Will Well Sirs saith he behold we have this residue of time now wholly free for the care of our soul And turning towards me said It (d) He speaks of his soul for as much as concerned
time being run out For the (l) In those Countries there rings a bell every morning noon and night when all men recite three short prayers in remembrance of the Incarnation of Christ our Lord. This they do whereever they be when the bell rings though it be in the streets and there they salute one other with a wish of the good day or night Ave Maria bell did sound Upon the hearing whereof we all recited that Prayer and he said it also upon his knees Then saluting all the company he sate down and was silent And whilest he held his peace we spake among our selves with astonishment at many things we had observed in him and they were these He did never sweat nor ever complain'd of any thing He never placed himself with any shew of weariness upon his chair nor ever shew'd any unquietness He never wept but whilst he was making his Confession nor ever sought to ease himself in the course of Nature He never had any thirst nor ever fainted He was never sleepy nor ever over-wrought with sorrow He was ever fresh and strong though in that night he had bin so many and very many times upon his knees He ever answer'd readily and with a lively voice His memory never failed or so much as wavered He was handsomly and modestly apparell'd He (m) A strange image of perfection was this young Noble man spake not so much as an inconsiderate word He never expressed a desire of any thing He had at certain times and upon certain occasions a discharged and smiling countenance He did compleatly give every man those titles of respect which were his due without failing so much as once as to one of Râ—verence to another of Honour to another of You. He declared most currently his last Will which was a sheet of paper long He was not taken by passionate tenderness but only upon the speech of the Lady his Mother He spake most honourably and Christianly of the Prince and Judges and even of those who prosecuted the cause against him All which particulars or the most part of them happen otherwise in others who fall into the like condition So that all those old experienced Confortatori of that Congregation of the Mâ—sericordia were amazed to see how abundantly the grace of God had wrought upon that Soul in the space of a few hours When this most devout Noble man had thus held his peace and we had been discoursing among our selves of the things aforesaid he calling me towards him who yet was standing not far off spake to me in this manner Dear Father let us make our last Reconciliation with God And then he made a short recapitulation of all his faults and began (n) A happy soul to be so speedily and so intirely purified to accuse himself of things so extreamly small as gave occasion and matter to this Soul of mine even till this day wherein I write and will till the hour of my death both to be comforted and confounded Being upon the end of his Confession he fell into a most ardent weeping in such sort as that bowing down his head towards my hand I was not able to endure the heat of his breath And when I said to him Troilo my Son Cast a bridle upon those tears of yours do not exasperate your own wound it is now enough and again enough you have wept enough you will have time to weep yet again when you come to lay your Head upon the block for (o) He was to suffer death for his misde eds but he was to bear it patiently and willingly for the love of Christ Christ His answer was this I have already told you Father and now I tell you once again I weep for my sins not for my death And when your Reverence shall have given me Absolution and I have perform'd the Penance you will impose which only deserves to be accompanied with tears you shall find I will weep no more And just so it hapned for wiping his face when I had absolved him and I having acquainted him with some necessities of mine own to the end he might give me (p) By his holy prayers in heaven assistance in the sight of our Lord he remain'd with eyes as full of serenity and void of tears as if in all his life he had never wept But then having rais'd himself it was thought fit by all the Company that certain Psalms should be repeated whereof I with the Confortatorâ— were to ponder some of the verses till such time as his hour should arrive Whereupon he said It is now broad day and there cannot be much time remaining Our (q) Great Piety and gratitude Lord be blessed for making me pass through this night so happily and so holily I thank you dear Father and you Gentlemen for your so great favor The good God reward you for it And here all of us recommending our selves again to his prayers we also again began the Psalms At this time the Executioner came in and no man had the heart to tell my Lord of it but he perceiving there was a preass of people gently turn'd his face about and as soon as he had set eye upon him he was not troubled with it at all but (r) Undauored holy courage arm'd himself only with the sign of the Holy Cross and making a countenance to me who stood close by him he rose and said Well the hour is come Gentlemen let us go and that cheerfully And they all answering thus Yea let it be done cheerfully Signor Troilo cheerfully for the love of Jesus He turn'd towards the Executioner who kneeling down at his feet to ask his pardon Do yâ—ur office said he in the name of God for so He will have it Your Lordship said he is to unbutton the Coller of your doublet And he being as ready on the one side as he was modest on the other with his own hands began to unbutton It is not enough said the chief Executionâ—r the doublet must be put off But the rest of those Officers of Justice were not willing he should put it off Yet the generous Noble man said That however he would do it if they thought it fit For said he it shall not greatly trouble me and if you have a mind to it I will strip my self from head to foot for the love of God Already therefore he was beginning to unty himself but it sufficed that he was unbutton'd to the shoulders Then one of the Confortatori putting him in mind of Non crubescam c. and the Officer coming to tie his arms in such a fashion as that when he should be arrived at the block his body might not have much leave to move In the name of God saith he bind hoth my arms and my hands too if your will be such For (s) This man had true faith in Christ our Lord and his sacred Passion who in contemplation and imitation thereof